(AQ) Confrontation - UPDATED (Full Version)

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Falerin -> (AQ) Confrontation - UPDATED (7/9/2008 15:30:13)

The time line of Confrontation my newest tale is strange I will warn you of that now. Parts of this story are set in the ancient past before the first coming of the evil to the lands, other parts are set very much in the near past and in the present. Parts that occur in the past happen primarily in the Drakel kingdom and follow the story of Xilar and his fall into the hands of The’galin the Uncreator, known to the other races as the Devourer of Worlds, a small number of these chapters were once released under the pseudonymous account Daniel on the old forums under the title “Ancient Evil” so if you recognize this tale it is from there. The modern accounts occur over a period spanning just after the fall of the City of Neld to the Vandarian Army and ending some time after the entry of several heroes into the Deep as previous recorded in Manifestation. The World of Xilar is very different from the modern world in every way. The races that live here are different from those who live now. In this world the elements are still united and humans don't even exist.... This is the story of two men’s parallel paths separated by millennia but leading to the same place and the choices that they make as servitors of an ancient and seductive evil. Confrontation is also a story of hope for in the mistakes of one may lie the salvation of another, and indeed of all creation itself…

To facilitation discussion of Confrontation and Commentary both of which I welcome and encourage I am creating a secondary sticky thread specifically for this purpose. Please refrain from commenting inside the chapters of the story itself.




Falerin -> RE: (AQ) Confrontation - UPDATED (4/5/2005 10:54:44)

Chapter 1: Rejection at the Temple

A stone hit me in the head and reached up and felt the blood seeping through and matting my fur and adding an odd sheen to my scales. I could not understand the malice that the others felt for me. For likely the millionth time I wondered in sadness what had I done to wrong them? Why I deserved to be the subject of their hostility and mockery.

In my youth I actually bothered to try to ask once, but my nervousness and reserve would not allow me to wait for the answer, if indeed any was given. I did not ask any more. The others disliked me that was enough. That I had done nothing to earn their dislike hardly mattered in the face of their great disgust. I had once thought it just the cruelty of youth but it persisted. That I was Kruath

"Get out of our way Useless one,” said Dargar. He was a servant of the Fire Temple and his temperament fit his element. How I wished that I had the belonging of communicancy. If I was a temple servitor then at least the fellowship of that community would be opened to me but the temple process had found me lacking. I had been rejected first in the water temple and then in the wind temple. The ice temple and the energy temple found me equally unacceptable. The elite warriors of the light temple were so incomprehensible to me that I had no desire to even apply.

My last hope was with the temple of Darkness but just this morning I had learned of their rejection of my application. It was coming from them that I had first been pelted with stones. The youth had perused me through the city but the adults did nothing to help either. They were mostly like Dargar they pushed me aside as worthless. The temple had rejected me and my demeanor, typically reserved, made me unacceptable for the military. What good could I offer them?

Weary of the abuse I fled the city into the wilderness and came to a shadowy cove. I should have known by the silence of the place. By the absence in midsummer of animals of any sort, even the tiniest insects. That something majestic would happen here. What I did not realize was that here, I Xilar son of Xilan would meet my destiny...





Falerin -> RE: (AQ) Confrontation - UPDATED (4/5/2005 10:55:47)

Chapter 2: The Fall of Neld

I watched the fires burn in silence. The Vandarian army had advanced with a relentless persistence. Their cause was an ideology, and like all who served a particular ideology, they did so with a religious fervor that would make the temples jealous. At their head was a man named Feldar, a man who was locked into his ideology, devoted very singularly to his ideas. For Feldar the advancement of his particular form of imperial democracy was the key to enlightenment and freedom. Cultures needed to be brought the wisdom of that freedom, and any government other then that of Vandar was a form of despotism to be violently resisted. It did not matter that those Feldar sought to rescue did not wish to be saved. Indeed how could they know better, being raised and tortured under despotic tyrannies their entire life they had been deluded into thinking that such things were normal. For Feldar this tyranny extended especially to the temples. The Elemental Lords were the bitterest tyrants that existed, for centuries holding human kind in their wars of oppression. Religion was despotism as sure as any human king and religion was to be denied and fought as furiously. Vandar knew know people turned to the the church stripping thmeselves of their own strength. Which is not to say it had no temples. It had temples a plenty, after all the people must be allowed to choose their own faith, but to be a member of a faith to serve a temple was to be looked down upon. Where in many cultures being a servant of your deity was a respected profession to Feldar and his Ilk to be a servitor to the temple was to serve a lie counter to the very meaning of being a Vandarian.

Of course I could feel for his argument where my own nation was concerned. The Valesti family had ruled Neld with a singular military strength that brooked no arguments. As for the temples I bore them little love. Feldar’s argument was pretty persuasive on this point. The wars that seemed to so constantly plague us before the coming of the Vandarian democracy had all had their roots in the temple politick. The sheer fighting and lose of life for service to the deities was so massive and so dark that there was little doubt in my mind that the temples were the single greatest cause of pain the world had ever known.

Yet I was caused to wonder how the Derenian people would feel when Vandar took its war to their shores. The king of Derin, Draynor, was widely loved by his people as a peacemaker who had heralded a golden age of culture and growth. I realized rather surely that none of this would matter to Feldar. Draynor was a monarch and thus by nature a tyrant. Worse his kingdom ultimately was entrenched in the temples, it mattered not that their peculiar variety of faith had seemingly made peace among the warring elements. The symbol of the Draynor’s tyranny to Feldar was Tralin, the king’s aide, a Drakel of some note, whose family was known to be water casters. Tralin’s presence in the royal court of Derin was likely seen as a sure sign that the king was involved in the most diabolical of pacts with the elemental lords.

I also realized, from watching, that Feldar’s control over his own people was tenuous at best. He ruled at their pleasure, he would have it no other way, but this did not make him immune to intrigues. Feldar’s right hand man was Darin, and there was something very peculiar about him. Feldar seemed to trust him implicitly, and Darin seemed to play this trust for all its worth. Indeed in watching the attack upon my childhood home I was quite sure it was Darin and not Feldar that led the armies of Vandar against us.

I cursed silently not for the first time. Though I might share an objection to the royal family of my homeland, the destruction that the Vandarian’s brought in service to their idol was no less terrible then the rule had been, they burned entire cities, to undermine the royal base of power. That innocents died, lost their lives, lost their livelihoods, these things did not matter. They were the cost of war. Easy it must have been to take this attitude for Feldar, it was not his families paying those costs. For my own I had lost a brother, and my pregnant wife to Feldar’s advancing zeal. Where was Derin in this, I wondered, though Neld and Derin had an uneasy past they were by treaty our military ally, obligated to come to our aid, and Draynor was a man of honor. I could hardly imagine him neglecting his treaty born duty. Yet they were nowhere to be found. No I reasoned, its not a failure on Draynor’s part, rather it was the sheer suddenness and force which the Vandarian attack had displayed. Draynor had warning that we did not of the Vandarian coming but they had only had a short while to mobilize no less to ship their armies across the sea. At this point doing so would be madness. Neld had fallen, according to proclamation it was not a territory of the Nation of Vandar. Little would be gained by bringing their forces here.

I was startled from my reverie by the sounds of movement in the Vandarian tent town that had been erected to the side of the city and turning toward the crest of the hill and out toward the shore I became aware of the reason for their disquiet. Even as I was bemoaning the failure of the Derenian king to respond to our peril his ships had begun to land on our shores. If I remained where I was I would be caught in the middle and either way would be forced to take arms. I was not prepared for this and knowing its futility I did the only thing I could do. I fled into the smoking ruins, heading for the one set of buildings that remained relatively intact, the temple quarter, and here… and here I met my destiny….





Falerin -> RE: (AQ) Confrontation - UPDATED (4/5/2005 14:57:35)

I stood there in the trees feeling the wind blow, and I wondered not for the first time, what I was going to do with my life. I had devoted my youth to the study of temple magic and felt in my soul the strong desire to be a communicant. Unfortunately for me ambition and drive was not sufficent. One by one the temples had rejected me. I had never even gotten far enough to be tested. The last of the temples had at least given me a clue as to what they had found objectionable about me.

"Xilar" The old priest said softly "You may have the talent, you may have the dedication, you may even have the calling but you lack the commitment. Just the fact that you have been so willing to move from one temple to another seeking their approval is proof that you are not commited to a single deity...."

"But..." I had began but the priest continued heedless of my objections.

"We would hardly be doing a service to our lord if we allowed you to enter his priesthood, knowing as we do that he was not your first choice but your last hope of desparation. I am sorry Xilar we have no choice but you have no future in our Temple and indeed we question your future is in service to the Gods at all..."

He was wrong. I knew it with all my being and I would prove it. I thought these thoughts in the darkness not realizing that in fact it was true and I would prove it in a way that would change the world forever. I thought these thoughts not realizing that my service to my God in fact would tear the temple hierachy apart. I knew none of these things as the voice pricked at the edges of my being, not so much heard as felt internally.

"Xilar... son of Xilan" The voice said simply, it was not a question but a statement and though I heard it after the manner of my peoples names I had the sense that it was not spoken as the Kruath'ri speak but in fact was an utterance in some ancient language that identified my very being....

"Yes?" I asked nervous not knowing that this sensation of intimate knowledge, of sure communication, was the halmark of a communicant communing with their deity.

"We have long waited your arrival here.... we had known you would come...."

"Who. Who... are you...." I was scared now... Scared because his voice spoke truth into my soul. The speaker had indeed waited in that very spot knowing with certainty that I would come to this place. That this meeting was fated, not of my choosing but ordained from the beginings of time...

"I am the Consort of Creation. I am The'galin truth bringer and I have come to change the world."

"The'galin...." I uttered dumbfounded. I remembered the Bard Saga's of old which told of a young man who sought to love the Gods. The'galin amazed by the wonder of creation sought to gain the favor of Lorithia the creator herself. Yet Lorithia had no communicancy. Of all the gods she was most silent, the most distant. The tales said that The'galin had died in the attempt for her hand but moved once in an aeon by his passion she had taken him into her kingdom and granted him immortality. A childrens story meant to encourage us to aim high and dream dreams, but no one had ever suggested that The'galin would come to do Lorithia's buisness. That The'galin should not be amongst the Gods but should in fact be a god himself. The though was exciting and terrifying. If what this being said was true...

I entertained doubt for but a moment. I could not deny the presence in my soul. Indeed this was The'galin, but if I entertained thoughts that he camed to Create they were foolishness I would learn in time the truth... he came to destroy... he came to devour




Falerin -> RE: (AQ) Confrontation - UPDATED (4/6/2005 14:48:42)

I hid in the center court of the Temple complex untill the dimness of twilight had long since faded into the purple inky blackness of night. The smell of the smouldering ruins penetrated even this hallowed space in thick choking billows. In the far distance a war horn sounded. I knew that Parley had not gone well. Feldar would not be dissuaded by anything less then complete surrender of the Derinian people to Vandarian rule. Feldar, or Darin, I could not really be sure. By this time tommorow the beach would be as red with spilled blood as the city had been before the torch had been taken to it.

As I moved out of the temple complex I became aware of the workers rebuilding actively arround me. The Vandarian's were seeking to fortify their position now and were moving from the Tent town by the bay and into the remains of the City itself. Already the center square of the temple and market districts were cleaned and to my astonishment it looked as if the Market was open for buisness.

I realized with a sinking sensation that this boded ill for the Derenian contingent that had landed. If the Vandarians felt that they could spare the manpower to rebuild on the eve of what was undoubtedly going to be an outbreak of new hostilities this meant they had forces which outranked the Derenian guard for certain. While the Vandarian leadership was smug about the superiority of their ideaology they were not so smug about the inherent superiority of military force. They would not be given to idle threats and empty promises nor would they enter battle wily nilly and without thought.

Still I knew of the power of the Derenian special forces, I had seen Commander Delnar lead the Royal Guard some years prior at the battle of Casomar which spelled the end of the conflict between our two nations. He had with him at that time a squadron of Frogzard Knights and the damage that they could do was tremendous. I was not sure why I wanted Deren to end this conflict here so badly, what difference that made, though I suppose in some way I expected that it was that I wanted some sort of symbolic victory.

Lacking any place to go I returned again to the temple square and sought entry into the temple of light. Knowing that their deity obligated them to the care of those downtrodden I hoped to find solace there but I found the door strangely barred. A sign proclaimed that the temple was under repair and directed those seeking succor to a nearby inn...

I considered this option for a moment and it did not appeal. An inn was a social structure there was no way I could continue to keep a low profile amongst the Vandarian soliders in that inn and if I were spotted there and recognized as being of eligible age I would be pressed into the Vandarian army. Instead I moved deeper into the temple Quad debating which of the other High Priests might be persuaded into helping me when a slightly Ajar door caught my eye. The door itself was rather plain carved of the same field stone as was used for most of the others in the public quarter and which had so faithfully served the masons guild of Neld all these many years. What was odd about this door was nothing about its appearance, Nay it was its feel, I had been past this stretch of wall no less then 300 times in the past year and yet I had never noticed this door. I had indeed been through this temple quad twice already this day and numerous times in the days leading up to the burning of the city and I had never in all of that time seen this door. I would have in fact sworn with some degree of risk that this wall had been entirely smooth. Worse the door seemed to emenate a power from within. I tried to place where this door would take me in relation to the other spaces of the temple and realized by the other buildings arround the exterior that could not take me anywhere in the private quarters and it could only be that it would but me back in the center square again near the far side. Considering this breifly and welcoming a shortcut that would not require me to circumnavigate the quad again before continuining to the Inn something that I had come to realize I had no choice about I entered the door and was starteled by the complete darkness inside. I stood in a narrow corridor carved INTO the temple square wall. The space was narrow and dim but intrigued now about what this space could be and indeed what purpose it could serve I descended into ....

Into what? I cannot describe it. One might say I descended into darkness but it was in fact not Darkness that I found... What I found was not an elemental force at all...




Falerin -> RE: (AQ) Confrontation - UPDATED (4/19/2005 11:26:50)

The voice of The'galin pounded in me a steady rythym. At first it was just words that I heard, but as time passed the words gave way to a sense that I was being read like a tablet, that The'galin knwe me in my soul. I felt a sense of burning in my soul, burning but not pain and when I placed one arm on my fur lined scales and felt an intense warmth born of no fire.

"Long we waited for you Xilar of the Kruahth'ri... Drakel prince.. long we waited...." Yet your form will not do for this so we shall remake you.... Accept our deal and though your name be not changed none will remember Xilar the loathed, Xilar the worthless, Xilar the fallen.... In another image shall we make you.... and you shall be our voice of reason in the world... You wish the communinicancy of the Gods.... so be it Xilar I accept you.. Where all others rejected you, so mired in their own squabbles were they, I will exhalt you and you shall be my harbringer and the world shall be forever changed by the words of your mouth... say only this... say that you will serve me... give me your devotion and you shall rule this age... know this however that when we are done Kruath'ri you will have not a people. The Silari will be no more... even your mountain cousins the Drakel will be driven to extinction..."

This thought chilled me somewhat. My race would be destroyed for my service.... My devotion to an individual would sentence an entire people to death. The madness this implied was not lost. The Drakel too would fall? I considered this with some great pensiveness.

The Drakel and the Silari were not so distant cousins. Our creation myths told that we were created by different Gods. Yet we spoke the same language had very similar apperances and we interbred true with each other. Many Silari had taken Drakel mates and had children. The same was true the other way. Whether the offspring of such unions were Drakel or Silari who could say... only comfort and location dictated the difference. Silari coloration was far more varied then the Drakel, some of us even possesed the multichromatic talents of the changing lizards. The Silari were horned while most Drakel were not, our fur was more pronounced then that of the Drakel whose reptilian features were dominant. This fact puzzled some who thought that it should be the other way. Would not the fur make the Dessert Silari hot while it would warm the Cold Mountain Drakel. Both the Drakel and the Silari represented an intersection of mamilian and reptilian ancestry of that there was little question. The truth I knew was that Silari fur was a rather effective cooling mechanism offering greater surface area from which heat could dissipate. Our fur felt and looked similar to most other mammals fur but it had properties unique to the Kruath'ri.

Kruath'ri, citizen, the word that both Drakel and Silari adopted for members of their respective races, among polite society in both cultures the word was also extended to members of our cousin people; among less polite society it was reserved...

"You reminisce much and take much time... you argue with my cause... you preserve loyalty to a lost creation who services the very gods who destroy our world. I tell you. Unless you rise against their iniquity it is not for your people you need to fear but eternal warfare."

What he was stating was disingenuous. There was truth in in but little and its meaning was being clearly twisted. Worse he did this without hiding the fact from me. I knew well his intention. I debated more feeling certain that service to this being was madness. Knowing that I was in the presence of an evil more pronounced then the world had ever known. How the epic hero, who loved Creation, had become this being who bid me join his ranks, I knew not but it must have been a terrible fall indeed....

"No..." I cried "What you seek, you will not find in me I will not betray my people..."

"What a shame" The'galin said and his voice seemed genuinely sad.... "It is a pity they wont treat you with the same courtesy"

I shivered involuntarily a chill of trespass running through my being. What had he meant by that.... I did not know...

As it happened I would resist The'galins call for a while, longer. I would even fight him. I later came to wonder why he allowed that, why it was neccesary, but I can come to only one conclusion. Though I protested the damage they had already done to me was extensive enough. Regardless of what my lips and even my thoughts said I was already his....




Falerin -> RE: (AQ) Confrontation - UPDATED (4/26/2005 14:29:27)

As I moved through the inky blackness a sense of growing dread over took me. I could feel a presence here unlike any I had ever before imagined. Something was living in that deep darkness living and breathing and it was seeking me out seeking to consume me. How I knew this I did not know but I sensed it deep in the core of my being. My very soul reviled the thought of its content.

This dread alone should have been enough to send me runing with all haste in the opposite direction and and indeed I intended to do much that very thing. Yet I was frozen, as a sense of growing panic overtook me. The chamber into which I had descended was filled with a haunting keening wail. Some part of me recognized that I was the trigger for that wail, that my coming into this place at this time had unlocked a sort of door. Even as I realized this fact I was filled with a sense of odd detachment. The wail might have been started by me but I was not its target.

The wail itself was musical in quality and I was at once terrified and awestruck by its dark beauty. The chamber opened up and for a moment is as if I could see the sky outside rapidly move from day into night and I had this odd sensation that time was flowing rapidly away.... With this sense of detachment there was also a sense of motion and for a moment I found myself standing again among the Vandarian contigent in the city above but the movement did not cease there and I was cast out and above the city.

Suddenly I was standing in the middle of a battle field. Captain Delnar and the Frogzard Knights were standing at the edge of the field and It was easy to tell that the Vandarian force was beating them back. The Vandarians however had taken heavy casualty for their efforts and neither side looked as if they would survive the battle much longer.

I watched in the distance and saw a man move from the camp in the armor of the Royal Derenian Guard. I immediately recongized the man as Delnar. He marched toward the front and shouted parley parley a flag of truce raised but even then the battle continued arround them, The vandarian contigent offering them no quarter.

Finally night fell and the vandarians began a slow retreat to their camp. Only then did I see Feldar, the head of the Vandarian army move from his command tent and cross to the front line. "Servants of the Tyrant" he yelled dimisively. "We will destroy you. We will give you no parley or nor quarter. We have already told you nothing less then surrender...."

Another voice to my side whispered "Perhaps even not then" and I turned in suprise to see Darin the man who I knew secretly ruled these forces by machination. I feared that he might see me he was so close but he seemed oblivious to my presence

As Feldar made his taunt, I became aware of a contigent moving slowly arround the flank. They were fresh and clean and had clearly been spared from the days fighting. The most obvious conclusion that could be drawn from this movement was that the vandarians were preparing secretly for a covert attack after dark. Traditional battlefield honor held no interest to the Vandarian people who were raping and pillaging the country side and declaring themselves free of all tyranny.

The scene shifted and I was drawn along following after Darin who moved even quicker then I. We entered the city and in suprise or some alarm I saw him draw into the temple district following much the same path that I had just moments ago. "Had he discovered me afterall" I wondered with some dread. But as he passed the wall that I had breached I saw no door. It had not yet occured to me to feel terror for being trapped in this odd place, I felt instead relieved that he could not reach me.

Still I followed him and watched as he entered the Temple itself and then moved through the central courtyard that served all of the gods into the Chamber of the Water lord. He whirled through a series of passages at a dizzing rate of spead and when I finally felt myself still we were standing in an odd room with rippling water. Darin was speaking... I could not hear his words but I sensed them. He was communicating with the god of this Chamber, the waterlord.

He was a Communicant of the Water Lord? The Vandarian Warrior for freedom from enslavement who railed against the temples was a servitor of an elemental power? Surely Feldar knew nothing of this. I wondered how he would react to the knowledge. I decided it would not be favorably. While Feldar outranked Darin I had no doubt that the man could use his influence to have feldar replaced or worse.

Even as the image died I was left with a sense of deep disgust. The Vandarian hypocrisy was amazing. They forced their ideaologies upon all nations but did not even follow it themselves. They had claimed to be working for equality but the truth was apparent the Vandarians destroyed my nation for their greed....

I stood once again in that Dark, yet not Dark place, and became aware that the Keening had died in intensity. The song drawing to a slow and perceptible conclusion and the sound of many muttering voices filling my head.

"I can help you" a voice called strong and clear, even as I railed against the Vandarian injustice "Just agree and the Vandarians will be defeated. Let me show you the way...."

I did not know the source but I was angry.. too angry to be afraid so I simply nodded and in doing do sealed my fate....




Falerin -> RE: (AQ) Confrontation - UPDATED (5/3/2005 14:28:20)

I fled the grove determined to escape the clutches of The'galin and his Dark Intentions, before long the sand beneath my feet told me that I had fled the boundaries of the Oasis entirely. I had no idea where I was going, only that I wished to be far away from the influence of that Darkly Suggestive voice. Free from that strong impulse to betray my people in vengeance for their intentions.

The evening sun was already sinking beyond the horizon and the cool of the dessert evening was rapidly taking the place of the heat of the scorching day. For many races being out in the desert during the day was folly and many merchants shunned the dessert except during the moonlit hours. For the Silari, uniquely adapted to the desert environment travel was possible at any time. The uniqueness of our fur lined scales allowed us to readily disipate the heat of the sun during the hottest hours and trap ambient heat during the coldest nights.

Dehydration however was an issue that all living beings faced and the Silari were no exception. Running headlong into the desert at any time of the day was folly. The acknowledged foolishness of my actions however did little to slow my flight from the desert city that had been my home. Logic could not command the deep seated fear that had taken root in my mind.

I had no idea where I was going and even less Idea what I was going to do once I arrived. I knew only this, if The'galin had attempted to recruit me he was surely doing the same with others, and others might well agree to his demands without a second thought.

This thought was very much on my mind during my flight from the Oasis to the near edge of the Skraeling Wastes. I considered momentarily my options and the turned toward the port of Lolosia. I would leave the mainland entirely seek refuge as distantly from my home as possible

Fleeing The'Galin was a foolish thought... You cannot flee destiny




Falerin -> RE: (AQ) Confrontation - UPDATED (5/10/2005 14:20:54)

Screaming. I remember the screaming vividly. The moment I nodded the odd haunting melody raised in intensity and the unearthly screaming began. I could feel power welling from within me flooding out of me like I was some battery providing the current, which the force that I had awoken needed to fuel its attempt. The screaming was terrible and I am not entirely sure how much of it came from another world, how much of it was the results of my actions in the streets above, and how much of it was my own screaming

I learned later of the armies of undead that arose from nowhere. I learned later of the return of the ancient greater light demons the Brilhado to the land of Lore. I learned later of many things but then I knew only my anger. I was furious at the Vandarian's particularly at Darin and his manipulations, I was furious for their destruction of the land and of the people. I was furious and also a bit afraid. The answer to my many problems seemed to now be tied to some force outside of my understanding. I had sealed my fate by accepting his aid I knew this but had I also sealed the fate of the rest of the world? I did not know then who or what held control of that place.

Later I would make the choice to attempt to undo the folly of not one man but two, but then I knew only my anger and fear. Anger and fear that were so consuming that they would effect everything. In bringing the undead menace to the world I spelled the doom of he who would most likely have been able to fully defeat the Vandarian's, Draynor of Derin.

All of this however is another tale, one that is recorded in other places. For my own part I did not remain in Neld nor in Lore for long... I ran into the traveller.... and the traveller.... changed everything.

I remember walking out of the city and the wailing continuing and feeling the fear and sick dread that it evoked even in me. I remember also the sense of great power that threatened to deaden my reservations. The power was extreme and it was intoxicating.... I was stumbling out of the room when I saw him standing their shifting through the rubble with a stick and then righting down his observations. He was tall and had a platinum gray hair but his ears were elf like. I remember thinking that something was a bit off about him that he was not from arround here, I remember thinking it and then before I said anything to him he answered...

"Thats very true.... I am not from arround here"

The statement was simple and purposeful. Yet I was alarmed by it. It took me awhile to realize the source of my alarm. The man had answered my question without it being voiced. I thought of the voice in the rubble and wondered if this might be the source of my power... but again before I could voice this idea the stranger answered

"No... Never. I do indeed grant things but The'galin and I have nothing in common. Nothing at all. Some might argue we are both wickedness, but it would be a weak argument...." He stood again and shifted.... "None the less I did come here because I knew I might find you. I did come here to help abate the damage of the Devourer"

"The Devourer?" I asked dumbly, vaugely thinking of ancient legends but not really placing what the stranger said "Yes.. The Devourer. The Uncreator. The Destroyer. The'galin. Your new master....."

"What?" I said horrified

"Yes I thought you might be startled. The'galin works by enticement. He does not use direct methods but instead misdirection. If people knew what he really was selling they would never buy..... Still it is important you continue cooperating with him.... For the nonce. It is important child that he believe your treachery. Thus as he will believe that of Myr of Stonedeep. Myr indeed will have to betray many and actually for a time act as the direct emmisary o The'galin before the end. A God is not easily fooled child. Even when aided by the likes of other gods... and we do indeed have their aid. Lorithia and the others move on our side... but it is important important thay you fulfill your role. Myr I have confidence in. He has been a high priest in the church of the shadow lord for years.. He can act like all priests."

"Priests act?" I said not comprehending him


"Oh indeed. The majority of the modern priesthood of Lore is a show... Myr is a communicant... you have the tendency but you would never have been a priest... That is why The'galin chose you.... he always chose those on the outside. It is why he chose Xilar so long ago as well..." The man stopped then considerately

"Your path and Xilar's shall mirror many.. but for now... It is time to show you the full magnitude of what you serve and the evil he will attempt and also why it is so important you play your part. Are you ready? No? Good! If you had said yes I would have left this world to its fate... you can never be ready... but nonetheless you will act..."

The strange elf said this and then the world was chaos as he ripped me out of Lore and cast me in to another world....




Falerin -> RE: (AQ) Confrontation - UPDATED (1/1/2006 0:03:59)

I arrived back at the Ne'eld having fled The'galin and was nearly immediately set upon by a band of young thugs who were part of a local press gang. I am told Humans had such things too where people were consigned into work against their will. A form of slavery really without the same legal status. That is what I was told of human Press gangs. Among the Kruath'ri however it was another matter. Those enslaved by press gangs and made to work in the mechanical factories building war machines were treated very well relatively. But they were also stripped of all honor and status. There was no honor in falling to a press gang and none would press the issue and seek freedom because to do so would admit weakness. Most impressed workers were brainwashed thoroughly and by the end would swear by their work force.

After the day I had I was not about to fall to a press gang, however. Whatever self preservation instinct I had was replaced instead by a rage at my situation and I struck out and fought the gang fiercely. As they pressed on me without thinking I unleased several fire spells in succession. My anger boosting my ability, but I was not an accepted member of the church. In later years all would have access but back then fire magic was the province solely of the servants of the Fire Lord. This alone was bad but I killed one of my attackers and the guard happened by....

If I expected justice and mercy... I was sadly mistaken...what I got was a fulfilment of The'galin's predicition for me... my people betrayed me for what would be the very last time before I sealed their fate permanently.....




Falerin -> RE: (AQ) Confrontation - UPDATED (1/3/2006 21:30:13)

My first sense of the new world was the terrible smell, a horrid gut curning stench that pricked at the edges of my being in ways that caused me great revulsion. I had heard a term for such a thing before noisome, meaning foul to the point of being noxious and toxic. Before coming to that world I could scarce imagine such an odor but here it was in full glory.


"It only smells that way here" the stranger remarked dispasionately "because we are near the gateway. Things are warmed here, bacteria have the opportunity for more putrefaction. The rest of this place has the decidely more wholesome smell of an ancient crypt."

The incongruity of these words did not even occur to me at that time, I knew only that I had to be free of the stench quickly. At this point I had not even begun to ponder what the source of the stench might be. I followed the stranger blindly, for I could not concieve of any worse place then the one in which I now found myself and true to his word the smell lessened in intensity, though a sense of disease and decay cliung to me eve then like the last stubborn tendrils of fog refusing to burn off even in the harsh early morning sunlight.

"It does wash off eventually.....In a year or so you will hardly detect a trace...."

Was this last said with humor? I could not tell, and even were humor intended I could hardly find the humor in the situation.

"What is this place"

The stranger gestured out across a landscape torn and broken and I could recognize in it the signs of many battles. All arround however there were no signs of life only that malingering scent and then I caught my first sight of them. Creatures milling about in the valley below considerably distant from my own location, only they were not living beings, even at this distance I could tell the source of the great odor was before me.... A massive army of the living dead moved beneath that sickly orb that passed for this place's sun, an orb that gave off not ligjht but some parody of light that my eyes never the less seemed able to percieve. I did not know how this might be so, nor did I know what this world's nature may have once been but what it was not was clear....

"This was once a world as alive as your own. Here The'Galin won...." The stranger saId simply and gestured again at what lay beyond...

A War Ravenged wasteland populated by none save the undead... but wait... even as I formulated this opinion I saw the first signs of them their brilliant glow and their lavender wings, it was these creatures of light and not the sickly sun that provided my eyes with the illumination I needed to see.... They were singularly and ethereally beautiful.....

"And also some of the most evil and deadly creatures you shall ever encounter.r" The stranger responded to my unspoken thought as if we had been engaged in a conversation the entire time and I again felt that odd chill.

"Who are you...." I finally asked aloud giving voice to what I had been long thinking as before though this question remained unanswered the stranger pretended as if it were never even voiced rather he continued speaking about the creatures I saw

"Those are the Brilhaldo the ones with the more intensely purple wings are their necromancers. They are the greater light demons, from which all light demon kind descend, it is they who betrayed the forces of Light to your master....."

The way he said "Your Master" was so matter of fact and so certain that it chilled me. Had I trully given up my individuality, my freedom in accepting the aid of that strange voice against the Vandarian's....

"Perhaps, Perhaps not" The stranger answered my unvoiced question again dispelling all doubt that he was simply choosing to not answer my question about his identity.... "Your fate remains to be seen... but make no mistake.. you will pay for the aid you accepted one way or the other"

"Who are you?!" I repeated anger rising in me but I realized in dread that it was for nothing, somehow in the space between one blink and the next the stranger had gone and I was left alone...




Falerin -> RE: (AQ) Confrontation - UPDATED (8/20/2006 1:34:24)

I lay bloodied on the cobbles, the wound in my side was very nearly gushing a fountain of blood. I was going to die. Of that there could be no doubt. The thugs who had jumped me had dealt me a fatal blow and I was going to die here on the street. In that moment I could not help but cast my mind back over a life time of failure and disappointment. I could not help but see the humiliation and misery I felt at every juncture. I had dreams like everyone but each one of them had been singularly crushed, by my very own people.

As my life ebbed and the darkness took me I found myself standing in a field. A man unlike any I had ever seen before stood before me. he was not a Citizen. I was certain of that. No this was the voice from the grove. Here was my would be benefactor and my peoples would be destroyer. I did not know how he had taken me to this place, or how it was I came to be uninjured here but there I was and there he was the world's greatest evil.

"Xilar" the figure said sadly his face solemn and drawn. "Was it worth it Xilar. Was the running and fleeing worth the pain and agony. What have you gained by rejecting me so harshly? What have you lost because of that choice? I am forgiving though Xilar. Come to me and I will take you as my own."

"I have already told you I would never betray my people for you.... I shall not serve you and your dark intentions now or ever....." With this I threw my self at the man with a fury pummeling him about the head and face with my fists seeking to claw out his eyes. I turned every bit of fury I held inside against him. And I even managed to gouge a tunnel of flesh out of his right cheek which blossomed crimson under my assault.....

For my efforts The'Galin laughed. His laughter was warm and somehow reassuring in spite of the cold dread it caused. Was I already that polluted that darkness felt good to me?

"You have only to call out to me if you change your mind Xilar.... Call out the words 'I accept' and all shall be fixed....." with these words I found myself again laying on the cobbles bleeding, battered, and very clearly dying. The field seemingly but an illusion in my mind. Yet I knew that it was real. That The'Galin could spare my life or let me die here. I would not serve him. I would not betray my people.

"Why if it is not Xilar the dragon mound" A mocking voice came, familiar somehow. I turned my head and saw Leiax, one of the Fire Lord's communicants.

"Leiax... I have been hurt badly.... I am dying.... please fetch aid....." I croaked desperately

"Aid you?" Leiax grimaced coldly. "I would sooner mate with a Zard"

Leiax walked closer and kicked me once in the ribs.

"See you arround Dragon Mound"

So this was it? I was to die here on the ground in the city I had always known and loved. I was to die a noone a failure. What sort of eternity would be waiting for me for my failure. I could only imagine the torment. I had no honor or priviledge and nothing to show for my years. I had nothing to offer the gods. They rejected me in life and would almost assuredly reject me in death too.

Yet I persisted, the pain growing and the light fading, I persisted hoping but knowing it was for naught.

In the end, moments away from death I merely mouthed the words that would destroy the world. The words The'Galin knew I would say all along.

"I accept"




Falerin -> RE: (AQ) Confrontation - UPDATED (8/21/2006 0:50:29)

I stood there staring at where the stranger had so recently stood, dumbfounded. Had he lead me to my death on some foreign world. Was his taking me here only to have me fall under the might of the undead and these 'Brilhado' he mentioned? These thoughts plagued me as I stood there wondering what to do next.

In a matter of moments I had gone from watching the Vandarian army take over my home to being stranded in this cruel desolate world. I reflected back on what it was the stranger had told me.


I heard suddenly voices in the far distance and saw there a strange wavering portal and considered for a moment making for it, but I realized that I had no idea where it was this portal lead or what purpose it served. I saw a group of the undead and at there head one of the Lavendar winged angels. These were the necromancers did the stranger say? I continued to move closer but slowly when I caught a sight that caused me to pull up short. There at the distance was that Darin the Vandarian's leader? I was almost certain that it was but he was atired now in the colors of Deren.

The melodic tones of the Angel Demon dispelled all doubt from my mind ""Greetings Darin Son of Liam, Governor of K'eld Ner, Servant of Tralin king of Deren, on behalf of his majesty The'galin I welcome you to his world and to his service"

'Governer of K'eld Ner?' I wondered, 'What is K'eld Ner, and Tralin the Drakel leader of the school of thought was now king of Deren? What had happened to Draynor? I had just left the Battlefield moments ago and Darin was very much in the employ of the Vandarian's what was this madness?'

"I will never serve The'galin! I shall resist the Devourer with all of my strength!" Darin shouted his voice clearly angered.

"Your strength" The Demon replied "Will be a great asset to us Lord Darin"

I was extrememly confused, What was happening here? When had Darin accepted service to the throne of Deren. Wasn't he one of those Millitant Democrats?

"We can use it in your current form" The Demon said cooly "Or we can alter your form to one that is more amenable to service. You do not have Tralin servant of Lorithia to disrupt our magics here as he did with the Renegade Draynor"

These creatures had done something King Draynor and that is how Tralin had become king I realized trying to make sense of a Drakel ruling a human kingdom.

"Service taken by force" shouted a shorter figure which I dimly recognized as Dwarven "is no service at all it is enslavement"

"True" The Demon immediately replied "Yet it is service nonetheless."

Darin made some sort of gesture at the Dwarf but he seemed not to notice and presently Darin himself was absorbed with what the Demon was saying as well.

"Willing or not it makes no difference." the Demon continued icily "All that matters is control. All that matters is victory. What place have codes of ethics and morals in a world so decayed that it must be destroyed and created anew"

"It is not the world that is decayed Brilhado it is you! You are the force of decay! You deal with The'galin despite owing your very existence to the Light Lord! You betray your lord and your people! You are the worst of your breed... trafficking in undead?! What does a Brilhado know of undeath?" Darin nearly shouted his voice defiant.

"Such bile, Such animosity and contempt you have for us Lord Darin." The Demon began and sensing the danger present I backed away slightly.

Even as I moved away the, Brilhado was it, yes I think so the brilhado continued his solliquy "How could you find service to our lord The'galin to be so detestable. After all, he only wants to control the rabble to protect that he values from the storm of greed and incompetence. You have long served our Lord The'galin Darin son of Liam your Malice has long fed him in the cold and dark. It has long nurtured him while he waited. Your Malice Lord Darin gave us the strength to summon an army of undead. Your plotting and machinations the Power to kill that insignificant human king, who made such poor decisions about the division of Drakel and human cultures."

I began to feel sorry for Darin and this suprised me for had I not just moments before entertained very similiar thoughts about the Vandarian. Had I not vowed his destruction?


"Your Malice Darin marks you like a beacon, and though you pretend to have reformed. Indeed even if you truly have repented of your sins. The Mark is already there" The Demon continued unabated and I noted the vacant stare which Darin now considered him with a chill "Now you have come to us.. after so recently having been inside the Walls of the Drakel K'eld they call Ner... You who let one of our own the one you call Giliara enter. Well both you and Giliara shall return to your true masters service. Of this you can be assured... for you have served us yet again... Your anger toward us... it makes your emotions readable.... It makes you weak... However, it also gives us time to surround you on all sides. We shall strip you of your venom toward The'galin. We shall make you loathe purity and light. We shall make you enjoy the stench of your own decaying flesh and revel in the sensation of the millions of crawling maggots swimming thorough your animated corpse. Moreover, your soul shall not be freed. It shall join in the damnation and depravity, but first between the three of you we shall get a very accurate map right to the door of K'eld N'er... It is for this reason that we brought our Vassal Myr to this place. We knew not the precise bearing. We knew not the exact defenses. Now Lord Darin we have its governor to share in the siege and destruction of his own City. Better we have the Dwarf Sigarin of Alorin. Who knows the locations of every walled city, every domed city, and every De'me'thar village. And every elemental Caster outpost. The Ancient and Noble Drakel race have remained hidden for centuries in defiance of their true master. They have broken the covenant they swore with Xilar and hidden in the depths... But we shall have them... and all because you have given them to us...


Draynor had been killed, the Drakel had been made king, Darin had become governer of a "Drakel City" and had given aid to a renegade light demon? I tried to make sense of all of this even while shuddering at the content of what the Brilhado threatened so cavelierly.

"Darin" Another voice called not once but three times and finally the man I considered so shortly ago the most detestable man in the world turned toward the voice even as the source of that voice grabbed him and pulled him into the shimmering portal. The demon reached out and grabbed the arm of the Dwarf but he quickly shook it off and ran into the portal himself. I was suprised to see that the Necromancer did not immediately persue them into the portal himself and instead stood there waiting. Then it dawned upon me the reason that this might be. They did not know how to get to this K'eld Ner and they planned on following Darin back to it....."

I watched the creatures milling there by the gate with a sense of total revulsion. Had it been creatures like these that destroyed the Vandarians? Had it been creatures like these who came to my aid. What had I gotten myself into when I accepted the help of that strange voice.

"Terrors beyond your imagining......" The stranger said suddenly at my side again and I nearly jumped out of my skin in surprise. "The'Galin may be a pathetic coward but he is also incredibly dangerous and incredibly powerful. Have no doubt that the Uncreator will not be satisfied untill Lore is reduced to a world much like this one."

"Where did you go?" I demanded looking at the stranger "You left me here to their mercy"

"They were distracted by the portal. As to where I went you pay little attention. I was speaking with that group myself."

"They plan on following them" I conjectured but really had no doubt somehow that this was their intent

"Yes" The stranger replied "They Do"

"We need to do something to stop them"

"There is nothing we can do here and much that must be done elsewhere"

"Well at least they escaped intact...." I said

"They did not escape intact" The stranger replied. "Did you not see the Brilhado grab the Dwarf as he fled?"

"I saw it but the dwarf easily pushed the Brilhado aside"

"That does not matter. The Brilhado already had used his magic... Sigarin was rotting from within. Even as I left them Zander had cut his throat from ear to ear to prevent his return as undead"

"What?!" I shuddered "Thats horrible"

"Indeed, yet absolutely required. It reminded me of something I saw once in Fair Harbor actually."

"Fair Harbor?" I said mystified

"A far away city. Yes indeed it was horrible as are the creatures that follow them and it is you who gave them their first reentry into our world. It was your words the world has to thank for this. Stand tall Galrick son of Glenn. For you may have heralded the end of the world"

I sould there in utter silence for I could not deny that all he said was true.






Falerin -> RE: (AQ) Confrontation - UPDATED (10/2/2006 12:39:31)

And so I became the agent of the destroyer. Faced with the utter contempt of my people and enraged by one abuse too many I accepted the gift that he offered. I expected some bright heavenly display to mark my fall into his clutches but I got none. What I did get was healed.

The wounds that had been so cruely dealt to me vanished in a moment and I found myself standing there alone as if I was uninjured. My robe had been repaired to replaced with a deep crimson purple robe with golden trim.

"Finally" I could not help but thinking "I am dressed and treated as I deserved to be treated. I wanted only ever to give my life in service. Yet always I was turned away in contempt. Now I will turn my revenge on those who rejected me. For I have given my service to the the true lord...."

"Yes Xilar" the voice said "Now you see the way. Go now and rise out into the feild. You need to complete your transformation. Consider what you find there, and do as you feel led to do...."

Obeying my master, I stood and ventured out across the grass land considering the village as I past. 'Rubble' I thought as I continued my path down the long winding trail opposite. I had nearly come to the place I first heard the voice when I instead took a turn into the grassland to the far side of my homeland.

Here I walked for a goodlong time considering it with greater and greater disgust. Here was the source of my peoples strength. A fertile valley. I was distracted by my rage, nearly tripping over the Moglo-habilis that had set up a picnic at the edge of the field.

"When I am done...." I said to the creature with contempt "This will be a vast dessert and you will have no place to sit and eat"

I did not know from whence the words came but I suddenly the felt right.

The creature uttered some kind of bleat in the language of all moglin kind and I was suddenly infuriated by this too.

"Cannot even speak a proper language." I sneered at the thing and kicked him which only caused him to bleat again.

Infuriated a new I grabbed my staff and finally began my work.

The poor creature did not stand a chance. By the time I was done it was little more then a puddle with chunks floating in it.

"Good Xilar...." The voice crooned "Now we are ready to really begin...."




Falerin -> RE: (AQ) Confrontation - UPDATED (10/2/2006 12:58:42)

"WHO ARE YOU?!" I demanded again of the stranger "Where have you come from and why are you interested in me"

"You are a man of many demands considering what you have done Galrick" He said and turned and continued walking refusing once again to answer the simple questions I put to him. He always responded with some new puzzle or enigma.

"You are maddening" I said again. It was probably the twenieth time I had said it since he had lead me out of that world. Though I gradually realized then as we were walking that we were not on Neld The coast was entirely wrong.

"This is not Neld" I said

"Quite astute" he replied with a smirk and I noticed something then.

"Your eyes were green before. Now they are azure. They change and not just like hazel eyes change."

The stranger stopped and placed his hand on top of the gem that crowned his staff.

"You want to know about me. Fine I will tell you. It will not save you or give you meaning. When you learn my position elsewhere indeed you may wish to flee me as rapidly as The'Galin. Yet if you wish to press I will tell....But it would be better if you accept this as my answer. I am a simple sojourner. A seeker of the truth. A deflector of lies and the source of the answer."

"That is not an answer" I objected "What about your eyes and where are we"

"You ask too many questions without knowing the right ones to ask and without waiting for the answers of any of them no less giving them time to sink in. This place is Paxia. I took you here to show you more of your masters work. Now will you accept my answe about me or must I tell you all you demand"

"Tell me" I insisted again

"Very well then I shall...."

And he began.





Falerin -> RE: (AQ) Confrontation - UPDATED (10/10/2006 23:44:04)

I traveled then for some time going from city to city and preaching the same message. The City of my people was planning to invade the other cities. I had heard this dark plan hatched by the temples in order to ensure the supremacy of their element. The temples hid this from the people but their Gods were at war.

At first few bought the message I was selling. Many doubted my sanity and even those who trusted it doubted my cause. While this discomfited me my lord was unconcerned.

“The Seeds are planted Xilar” he said “Give them water and they will grow. Give them light and they will germinate. Give them just enough truth and they will destroy themselves with it”

I would only have a short wait before I began to see the truth of my Master’s wisdom.




Falerin -> RE: (AQ) Confrontation - UPDATED (10/10/2006 23:45:40)

We had been journeying for some time walking in the darkness. All the while true to his word the traveler spoke and what he told me was deeply disturbing. Not only for what it revealed about him but what it revealed about people and what it revealed about the plans of the Devourer.

“And that is why I have come to this world.” The Traveler finished. His tale ended as abruptly as it began and now that I knew as much about him as I wished to know he was right, I was not certain I could trust him let alone work with him. I should have listened to him in the first place.

“You say that the entire church of the Lord of Good was taken over by these impostors?” I asked him trying to clarify the last niggling bit “and lacking the guidance of their lord as real priests would they are susceptible to influences. How could, a whole church, replace genuine clerics with charlatans and no one notice?”

“People noticed” The Traveler said “But few talked. People have a way of ignoring that which discomfits them. They have a way of avoiding the truth as quick as much as they can. Mark me well Galrick for it is as true on your world as it was on mine”

The traveler continued walking down this dark hall that we had been traversing for some time.

“And this place is not real?” I said trying to understand “It does not exist”

“No. It exists. It is as real as Battleonia, but it has no substance”

“How can something exist without substance I see a stone hall. I feel the stones”

“That is because your mind is making sense of the way between worlds. Some places it is perceived as vast expanses of space and sojurners wander via ships. Others are perceived as glowing portals of light which serve as gateways between worlds. Here it is a hallway and each door way is a thin space in the wall and opens on a possibility. Where there are walls are thick there is no way to breach between those worlds. All of these different ways of seeing the chasm between worlds is real… and none of them have substance. All of them are shades of something bigger then our mind can handle so it interprets it in manners we can. Do you follow?”

“Not Really but…” I began but he interrupted me stopping outside a large vaunting stone door….

“This door is different from the others…..” he noted.

“It is… where does it lead?”

“During the process of creation, sometimes pieces of the force of creation, pockets of other dimensions become trapped in the material realm, bending it locally. These pockets are older then the creation and exist outside of it, and thus can reshape it utterly. Caelestia has a very large such pocket, an uncontrolled realm known as the planes of instability that has a mind almost of its own. Were you entering Caelestia you might see a door much as this one there... The door is changed by the power it contains….”

“LORE has more than one such region but each of them is segregate and none of them are obvious to the average adventurer because they do not have the same sentience and power. But a powerful enough force could still bend these pockets to their use. The Drakel realized this long ago and sought to isolate these pockets. Trap them inside of deep underground places and inside of devices using magiscience so that creation itself could not be used to uncreate and cause destruction. This of course infuriates your lord. He would like nothing more then to use such things to his aims and before the end of this he undoubtedly will. We will not have the time to gather the artifact forms of these things. We cannot prevent them from being used to alter the course of reality when unified in the right fashion. This however is one of the largest pockets of uncontained energy I have been able to discover. It was large enough that the Drakel failed utterly to trap in their devices and instead covered it with their mountain. The magic’s that allowed this required the willing sacrifice of some 2 or 3 million Drakel magi over a 200 year span. This occurred sometime shortly after The’Galin last left. The magic so altered the movement of the continents and the mountains and seas, that even today LORE is substantially more geologically active then most worlds five times its size.”

“Why are we here then?” I asked

“I have the means of drawing this pocket of creation out of the world of LORE entirely by grounding it elsewhere. I will create the portal that will draw it from your world into mine. The increase in mass of the planes of instability from such an effect will be hardly notable, but the effect on The’Galin’s plan even as we speak will be astronomical.”

“I do not follow”

“The’Galin sends one of his messengers even now to take this place. Those who seek to stop him will not reach him in time…”

“So what can I do?”

“You Galrick will prove yourself to me here one way or the other. You will enter the door and open yourself up as a living channel of the energy there. As you have become The’Galin’s communicant you will have this capacity. You will then direct the energy through the doorway before his stolen communicant can do the same thing but direct the energy to the Uncreator. In short… you will use the power The’Galin has given you… to betray him”





Falerin -> RE: (AQ) Confrontation - UPDATED (10/18/2006 22:53:32)

“What do you seek” The angel asked me standing before the door of the light temple in the ethereal realm. The creature was clearly unhappy for my presence.

“Friend” I said “I am not your enemy. I agree with you entirely the peoples are a danger to the temple. I have heard your complaints to the Lord of Light and know also that he has spurned your wisdom.”

“Who are you” the creature asked flexing one lavender wind and then the other “what do you know of this”

“I am Xilar” I replied “and I bear a message to you of hope and purpose if only you accept”

Several other Brilhado gathered around me then and I stood continuing to speak.

“The Elemental Lords are not the only ones who ignore the danger the people present. My liege brought the same call to the Lady of Creation and she spurned his wisdom. In time we know that they will come even here into the Ethereal realms and wage their war.”

Many of the Brilhado nodded and murmured in acknowledgement of the wisdom of this it so clearly echoing their own fears about the wars that I myself had helped create in the world of LORE, this was exactly as Lord The’Galin had predicted but he had given me further instructions. “How can we protect ourselves if among us there is doubt and fear. Listen well, My master bids you seek aid from the Darkness Lord and gain insight from him”

I then departed and waited several days but the success of my attempt became well known for when they had approached the Darkness Lord he had reproached them for their disloyalty to the Light Lord and their fear of humanity.

“You have returned” The Brilhado said seemingly pleased by my faithfulness.

“I have. I will not betray you or use you. I speak to you only the truth. Creation has become wicked and it threatens us all. The Darkness Lord has rejected you and he too seeks to use you, better we use him instead. He intends to use his darkness against you as you are creatures of light. He is the opposite of you as surely as death is opposite of life. But there is a way….. Let us raise an army that defies both death and life and that serves neither”

“You speak of Necromancy” The Brilhado remarked “It is a forbidden art”

“It is forbidden by those who would sell us to our destruction, let us act that NONE may turn us aside.”

“This is well” Said the Brilhado “But what shall serve the basis, we can raise wizards among men but we must start somewhere, who shall form this army”

“Unity is important in this. The answer is quite obvious. Let us find such among your brethren who fear to serve who doubt. Let us release them from their doubt into true immortality, lest they turn upon us in ruin. In doing so we will be sure that the Brilhado are undivided.”

“You wish for us to raise our own brothers as the undead” The Brilhado asked somewhat taken aback.

“It is either the Brilhado stand as one or the Brilhado are destroyed by creation. Doubt is a disease and you have the cure. They will not ever die. For a moment of pain you will grant them everlasting power. This is not an act of murder or evil but one of the ultimate love and kindness….”

The Brilhado murmured among themselves some more but when they did not actively dissent I knew already that I had won.





Falerin -> RE: (AQ) Confrontation - UPDATED (10/18/2006 23:32:13)

“Do it NOW” The Traveller shouted standing there in front of the far cavern entrance. “The marching army approaches even now. Make your decision. Die here or make your stand and fight the darkness that has claimed you even as it claimed Xilar before you. Only through you can both be redeemed. What will it be? Will you stay the same Galrick of Glenn or will you seek the truth!”


“Fine! Fine!” I cried “But what Hope have I, what chance of salvation exists for me”

“None” The Traveller responded “I never offered you salvation I offered redemption. Will you fight or not”

To answer I thrust my hand there into the glowing pool that was the fount of primordial creation. I felt it fill me thoroughly and felt the power. Even as it touched me I felt reassured and I felt the truly tremendous danger the power represented.

“Open your channel Traveller before this energy destroys me utterly”

“Galrik….” A voice called standing there and I turned and saw a man in the robes of the temple of Darkness “You have succeeded”

The figure turned toward the Traveller “Am I no longer needed then. Am I free from this charade? I had to watch them kill my friends I had to threaten my friends myself. Yet you lead another here to do my Job anyway.”

“I had to Myr” The Traveller responded “Not because I thought you would fail but because of what you are. The danger was far too great. It was already a triple subterfuge. Plus we needed to be certain The’Galin’s army came here to the darkness”

“What is this” A new voice cried even as I felt the energy burning into my mind and heard the pricking of my lord calling for me to give the Energy to him as I owed him.

“Justice Diviara” the one called Myr smirked “I have betrayed you…. As I intended from the beginning”

“That is IMPOSSIBLE” the Brilhado roared in denial “I am a communicant of The’Galin I made you one too. We used The Cold, and you were given a Faceless, between the two you cannot possibly have resisted….”

“And YET” Myr shouted “I apparently HAVE”

“You threatened your friends! You DID his WORK!”

“But I NEVER ACCEPTED HIS SERVICE. YOU SOUGHT TO USE ME TO STEAL ME FROM MY GOD MY FRIENDS MY FAMILY!” Myr raged “There was NOTHING I would not do to resist The’Galin so when the Traveller came to me and suggested I pretend you had succeeded in your original attempt and it was just slow to take I agreed. I Knew I would have to betray my friends in order to SAVE them… so yes I watched you kill them I marched along side you silently. I spoke to your wicked god and nodded as he spoke his lies… and when that creature came into me to transform me and augment me, I was quite unique in the fact that I KNEW it was happening due to the Traveller’s intervention. Yet the creature did not wish to serve your dark lord either so he HELPED me with my deception. We are one being now and I am honored to be that creature. Both of my RACES will defy you… We will DESTROY you. You will regret ever betraying your original lord. But you… Diviara I will kill myself for what you have done….. What you did to Jano in K’eld Ner, what you did to Draynor in Stone Deep and what you have done to countless others”

Before Myr could advance Diviara launched himself into the air turning and flying toward the Traveller. “You MEDDLESOME mongrel I will destroy you!”

The Brilhado struck out with a sword cleaving the face of the Traveller nearly in two. He who was busy directing the energy away from me and preventing my destruction did not resist Diviara’s vicious attack nor any of his next three, but the damage was immense and I could tell by his holding and demeanor he was in pain. Myr meanwhile was engaging a smaller contingent of Brilhado trying to get toward both Diviara and the Traveler.

I continued to pull the energy fighting the pull of The’Galin in my head. Ultimately the aid the Traveller gave broke off the connection and I felt the last of the field of energy drawn out of that place into a world beyond The’Galin’s reach.

“You are too late Diviara” The Traveller spit blood on the angels face its crimson staining his wings. “I shall die here by your hand but you will not live long enough to do anything with me. Worse you could not anyway.”

Diviara thrust his sword into the Traveller’s abdomen then and there was a flash of black light as the Traveller collapsed to the ground his life force completely exstinguished. I felt the guide and protection around me fall away but even though it did so The’Galin did not return”

“MYR” Diviara yelled then “You were to be the Masters finest communicant. You were to be favored. One of his manifesta. And you betrayed him. Your LORD. You too will die here”

“No Diviara” a new voice spoke at the opposite end of the cavern even as a saw a small army enter the cavern and became aware of the sound of vicious fighting in the corridor beyond.

I collapsed then to my knees burned by the power confused and afraid.

“Giliara!” You treacherous swine “your very life is owed to The’Galin”

“No…. My life belongs to the Lord of Light. Your kind are the traitors. You killed your families and enslaved them as undead. You continue to enslave bodies’ minds and souls to this day. I am sorry servant of the darkness lord. I know you have waited long and wish to end the life of Diviara… But I get first claim. My debt to him is millennia old”

“Be my guest….” Myr responded with a sound suspiciously like glee still fighting with the Brilhado and undead near him “I am a bit occupied as it is….”

I saw Giliara strike Diviara hard and then the damage that the energy had done to me won out and I slipped into oblivion.




Falerin -> RE: (AQ) Confrontation - UPDATED (1/3/2007 23:38:01)

The Brilhado landed aloft as commanded and began their assault on the temple of Darkness with force.

"We are the children of the Light Lord. You are evil servant's of the shadows. By order of the Light Lord we will see you destroyed...."

The words of the Brilhado, carefully scripted were quickly heard by the Crier of the city who repeated this message when alerting the city that the temples were at war with each other. A single falsehold carefully nutured can bring down an empire. We however had not told a single falsehood, on the contrary we had woven a web of deceit so elaborate it could destroy entire worlds.

"Send in the Undead" I ordered one of the Necromancers "Make it appear as if the Temple of Darkness sent them"

"You wish us to engage our own army?" The Brilhado asked uncertainly.

"Our Lord wishes it have you some comment to make that I might relay?"

"Just that it's brilliant" The Brilhado smiled wickedly and with that gave the order....




Falerin -> RE: (AQ) Confrontation - UPDATED (1/4/2007 0:03:29)

"Galrick" a voice called incessantly and I tried to bat it away. I tried desperately to cling to the unconcious oblivion. The Traveller had been slain by the Brilhado. I was alone in an miasma.

"Wake UP already" The Voice repeated and I was kicked sharply in the shin "By Shorak's Keg...."

I awoke to find A Drakel standing over me, by his side was the figure that kicked me. He looked much like The Traveller though his eyes were different and he was attired in some sort of odd outfit of purple the likes of which I had never before seen. His voice was even similiar thought it held a somehow alien tone....

"Who are you" I asked "The Traveller's Brother?"

"I am Falerin and we are 'related' after a sort. We have driven back Diviara and the army of The'Galin but it will not take long for them to regroup. I am sending the Traveller with you to another realm far distant from this one to escape his attention. But be wary. Even on that world the Uncreator has servitors."

"Will you be creating a Haven as well as you indicated" The Drakel asked him then and I tried to peice together what he meant.

"Yes" Falerin responded "But that is no place to hide Galrick, For it will definitely attract his attention. It may pass a a neutral safezone, but it will not be at all safe to those already in his employ"

"How can you send the Traveller" I said then what he said dawning "He is dead. Diviara killed him"

"Death is mutable, even for the mortals of LORE, but especially for me my agents"

"Trae" A yellow moglin pronounced ominously. There was a strange tattoo on his arm A emerald green serpent. "are we ready to return to the surface "The Brilhado may attack Deren in our absence we cannot afford a delay"

"Yes Nel" The Drakel responded "I see our time beneath the surface has allowed your skin to heal"

"Oooh..." The Moglin moaned "Please do not remind me. I live with nearly constant sunburn due to my fair complexion. I wish that I was born red like my cousin. Red moglin rarely suffer from the sun's abuses"

"You looked red enough the last I saw you" Falerin remarked "Like a lobster"

The moglin did not even dignify this with an answer instead shuffling off the Drakel following close behind.

"Well are you ready?" Falerin asked me in the same dismissive tone the Traveller sometimes employed. Had I any doubt the two were related it was immediately vanquished by his matter of factness.

"Ready?" I asked but he took this as aquiesnce and suddenly the world I knew was once again gone only to be replaced by a world more alien then I could have ever imagined.







Falerin -> RE: (AQ) Confrontation - UPDATED (6/3/2007 18:11:50)

The assault on the temple led to the death of many. I should have expected that my lord would be pleasured with it but when I reported the success to him he seemed almost saddened.

"My Lord" I questioned "Should you not rejoice in the success of my efforts"

"Have you given up your humanity entirely Xilar?" The voice responded cold in my mind and for a moment I felt a great deal of dread. For I could not help but know that the voice that spoke had done just that. In some strange way however there was doubt. He had given up humanity in all sense of the word as I understood it but there was an aspect of him that was still inevitably tied to that creation from whence he was drawn. The evil that he represented and the manipulation he engaged in were challenged countless times by his reticence.

He never asked us to stop, oh no, he would not tolerate hesitation. Yet he seemed to regret not his action, but his action's success.

"I am what you demand, Lord" I responded carefully "If you are asking if the actions we undertake sadden me I can honestly say they do not for I have seen what creation does."

"Careful you do not become what I detest Xilar. Many of mine have long ago done that"

"Are you are asking if I regret the ease with which we accomplish our goals Lord?"

"Something of that sort. I still hope to be shown my folly. I am certain it shall be proven to me in measure after measure. I depend on it."

"Are you saying you hope to fail Lord?" I asked baffled

"It is my hearts deepest wish Xilar. It is only by failure that I shall know I have succeeded."




Falerin -> RE: (AQ) Confrontation - UPDATED (6/3/2007 18:19:57)

Chapter 22: My return to Lore

Something of an explanation is owed to you who reads the events of this narrative likely many years after my death. For some months now I have added nothing to it. What I am recording now I record well after the events happened. I cannot have helped but do this because of the nature of what happened to me. Some know of what else I have written and where the words are recorded. I for one shall leave those other narratives out of this. While they do play an important part of my story they do not add insight into this tale as it is currently recorded. At least this is the advice of the Traveller and since the Traveller is the historian of my tale I can only entrust to his wisdom the recording of my narrative. For those familiar with those events, the entirety of what happened in those other places, to the intervening period and most of all your friendship and rescue of me please do not think it a slight that I cover up those events with a gloss. It is not that they were unimportant but rather they are so beyond the scope of this story that I cannot do them justice within its pages. Your salvation from Ryuusei's hands cannot be underestimated. Unfortunately I can only predict returning to them again.

For those who have no clue about the rambling I have offered in the preceeding paragraph. I can only tell you dear reader that for a time I left the world of Lore entirely. I travelled hence from this place to a world of wonders unlike any I have seen before. Even as the power of that primal place was cast out of Lore to the world of the Traveller's origin. We thwarted for a time the effort of the Devourer of worlds but what that delay bought us cannot be determined except for in the lens of history. I have come in time to question we did the right thing. Except for the fact that we did the only thing we could do. Somehow the Traveller survived. Somehow I survived. I lived for some months in the City of Manhattan on the world of Terra. While there I discovered many things that challenged my very expectations about the way the world works. While there I also challenged myself and was changed. The Devourers Agents extended even to that world and Ryuusei Cartwright, one such, captured me and enslaved me. I eventually was aided to escape and returned back to Lore. The Traveller's guide, Falerin the LoreMaster, brought me to the attention of the Citizens of Battleon and they helped bring me back once again to Deren and to Tralin.

Herein the story begins again.

Someday someone may tell the tale of that other world. I only fear it will never be me who tells it.




Falerin -> RE: (AQ) Confrontation - UPDATED (1/10/2008 15:31:47)

In the time since the fall of the Brilhado temple I have come more and more to appreciate just how loathsome The`Galin considered the entire process to be. I also came to realize how angry he was at me for my interpretation of his command. None more so then the way in which we responded to those who refused the tide of progress. It took hundreds of years and many many worlds before he would even speak of the matter to me and even then he only did so with bitterness.

"It is known to me Xilar" he said "The darkness you suffered at the hands of the temple at large. Were it not known to me I do not know that I could forgive what you have done especially as it has been done in my name. I can however no longer escape it's irony. Just as the people of the elemental lords now act in their god's name falsely, so now are things attributed to me that bear nothing of my approval no less my countenance. That I will be vilified by the process has been known still it is a bitter pill to swallow"

By the time of this speaking I had come at long length to understand what The`Galin's goal in seeking me was. Indeed what his goal was in creation entire, and while his methods sometimes infuriated me with their indirectness. I could not fault their singular devotion to purpose. I could not deny his wisdom over time either.

"I acted wrongly" I said humbly "Turning brother against brother, enslaving the dissident. I acted wrongly."

"Among the brilhado, there is a family in which I see great promise. I wish to see them raised to the level of the generalship. The eldest of the brothers is to be made my communicant. Do what is neccesary. Use what means are neccesary. For them I have a plan they will never expect. We might in time restore what has been Lost. Though it is a bit late"

"My Lord?"

"Yes?"

"What Family my Lord"

"Celegra. The family name is Celegra"




Falerin -> RE: (AQ) Confrontation - UPDATED (1/10/2008 15:42:40)

A voice in the darkness. It was then as it was on Neld. I was in Deren near the capitol and hearing the voice I knew what it meant. Though it at first only whispered my name on the wind.

"Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalrick" It called through the mountain nights and I tossed and turned churning in doubt. I tried to distract myself with images of Celestra. She was gorgeous and so wise in the ways of the world that she allowed me respite. She was also I must confess highly dangerous and given as I had little to lose I suppose that interested me. It was not that I had forgotten my beloved. I never would but I had been so hollow and so alone for so long I know not where else I could turn.

"Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalrick" The voice repeated pointedly and I could no longer deny it's reality nor in fact it's nature. I stood there shivering slightly wondering what it might mean to hear that voice here now as I once did.

"What do you want" I demanded angrilly, effecting bravado I could not remotely pretend to feel. "Why do you call me here"

"It has to end Galrick" The voice answered solidified "I have come to ask as I told you I would. Is there hope, Galrick son of Glenn."

"They hide it. They lie and cheat and steal they attack the innocent. They plan their own ends"

"Nothing they do is unknown to me Galrick. I do not approve and they will learn of my displeasure when time allows. Is there hope Galrick"

"There IS hope"

"Then will you serve me. Will you fall bringing about what comes."

"Me?"

"No not you. You are too worthwhile. There needs to be an offer made though Galrick"

I considered what this could mean. It tormented me. I debated at length and hours for what it was and in a flash it came to me. Came to me in the words of others and in the warning of the Loremaster.

"I understand" I said somehow knowing he still listened.

"Will you fall bringing about what comes"

"I knew long I would"

"Then the Caelestian will succeed Galrick. I will make sure of it"






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